By Michael Letendre
It took just one game this season for Bristol Eastern girls basketball standout Alyssa Kehler to establish herself as a major player in CCC Region B play.
In fact, Kehler established a couple new career highs when the Lancers defeated Farmington by a 63-58 decision on Wednesday.
Her 18 point and six rebound effort was her best in an Eastern uniform as she canned two huge 3s midway through the third stanza to quickly increase a double-figure cushion.
The contest was a great example of what Kehler is going to bring the Lancers offense this year.
In fact, offense has always been her calling card but she also added two steals to her stat line against Farmington – showing a little defense as well.
She will help an Eastern front court along with fellow senior Sage Scarritt as the duo are expected to play a boatload of minutes this year.
This is third straight season that Kehler has seen varsity action at Eastern and in the world of scholastic hoops, experience counts in large amounts.
Kehler managed to play in all 24 games last season and when she competes against Central on Friday, it marks her 40th varsity contest at Eastern.
She broke into the starting line-up eight times in 2019-20, providing support at both shooting guard and small forward – carrying averages of 2.9 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists-per-game overall.
But over those eight stating assignments, everyone started to get the picture of Kehler’s all-around abilities.
Those starts produced numbers of 5.9 points and 2.0 assists-per-game.
Her best game of her junior campaign came against Career Magnet in New Haven on January 25.
If someone from Career had scouted Eastern, they would have been perplexed by Kehler as she burned the squad early and often.
The game was a crazy one as she scored her squad’s first 12 points and dropped a then career-high 14 overall.
She also nabbed four rebounds in that 50-32 non-conference victory.
Kehler can pass the ball a little, going for a career-best five assists in the 52-45 victory at Hall on January 16 while grabbing two steals at Maloney in the previous game over a busy season of play.
She is just one of many players looking forward to the first city series game of the year against Bristol Central tonight.
